Wicked review: With magical casting this Wizard of Oz-based tale proves there is no place like the cinema

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WICKED

(PG) 160mins

★★★★☆

THIS Wizard Of Oz origins movie proves there is no place like the cinema.

If you want to be carried up and away to another reality, where animals talk, brightly dressed citizens dance in the streets and student sorcerers sing like angels, then get a ticket for this musical.

Wicked, based on the hit stage show, is far too monumental to be viewed on the small screen.

Emerald City towers magnificently, a Hogwarts-style university enchants at every turn and the final scene pulls you this way and that like a tornado.

Comic touch

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo seem born for the roles of Glinda Upland and Elphaba Thropp respectively.

Their stage, acting and musical CVs made them obvious choices, but it's their emotional warmth for the characters which will keep you bewitched.

The film tells the story of how Glinda became the young Good Witch of the North and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.

The pink-obsessed and privileged Glinda is like something out of Mean Girls, but in Ariana's hands she remains likeable when she could be annoying.

Cynthia bristles with the daily injustice faced by Elphaba, who is shunned for being green, and the oppressed animals.

The anger that is perfectly contrasted with Glinda's blissful ignorance.

If any of that sounds a bit serious, don't worry, it is not.

Director Jon M Chu, whose films include Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights, handles everything with a deft comic touch.

There are plenty of knowing winks from the cast, with Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey excelling in this as the playboy prince Fiyero Tigelaar.

Adding to the fun are Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz and Michelle Yeoh as Elphaba's magic lecturer Madame Morrible.

Unfortunately, in an effort to fulfil the heart's desire of studio executives to make as much money from this as possible, Wicked will come in two parts.

This first one is two hours and 40 minutes, which is about as long as the entire stage show.

If the theatre version could fit every key scene into that time, I'm sure the film could have as well.

Wicked ends at a satisfying point in the story, which won't compel you to see part two next November.

But there is little chance of audiences not wanting to come back for more.

GRANT ROLLINGS

BREAD & ROSES

(15) 89mins

★★★☆☆

WITH the Taliban not allowing many women to leave their homes in Afghanistan, this is an incredibly brave piece of film-making.

Produced by Jennifer Lawrence, it takes the outside world into the catastrophe facing the country since the fall of the democratically elected government in 2021.

Women are banned from working, girls are excluded from education and anyone caught protesting is beaten.

Much of this has been reported in the media over here.

But this Apple TV+ film by director Sahra Mani shows the everyday acts of resistance, with citizens chanting "education is our right" from their homes.

Dentist Zahra and former government worker Sharifa provide home videos of their opposition to the religious zealots in control of their homeland.

They smile and laugh as they go outside without men by their side in acts of defiance.

In the background is frequent gunfire and the constant toil of growing poverty.

Sahra fled the country before the Taliban took back control three years ago and that limited the eye-witness material she could get hold of.

As a result, the film only reveals a fraction of the horror of life for women under the Taliban.

LAYLA

(15) 99mins

THIS British drama starts off like a comedy – but is as amusing as a diversity seminar.

In the first shot Layla (Bilal Hasna) has a piece of toilet roll stuck to their high heel (old gag) which is quickly followed by an amusing dig at corporations faking right-on credentials.

A ready-meal firm called Fork Me uses drag performer Layla to get across the message that "everyone is welcome around this table" but clearly doesn't want the "authentic" act.

Sadly, what had the potential to be a fish-out-of-water comedy – with Layla falling in love with the sensibly dressed gay PR guy Max (Louis Greatorex) and Max flailing among a flamboyant non-binary community – instead turns into a lecture on modern sexual politics.

Layla's friends are relentlessly scornful of Max, who commits the ultimate crime of forgetting to use the "they" pronoun.

The script is one long eye-roll at every faux pas that Max makes, and there is a very cliched sub-plot about Layla hiding their love for women's clothes from their Muslim family.

Bilal and Louis, though, are great, lending empathy to a script that doesn't deserve their talents.